


Bird Watching

by villaincoded



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Autistic Cloud Strife, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Neurodivergent Cloud Strife, avalanche being a family, supportive friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28599960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/villaincoded/pseuds/villaincoded
Summary: Cloud begins to notice Tifa giving him a strange soft look whenever he's interacting with the other members of AVALANCHE.  He's not really sure what that's about; he's just being himself.Takes place post-canon.
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart & Cloud Strife
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54





	Bird Watching

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quitebrilliantindeed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quitebrilliantindeed/gifts).



> This fic was written as part of a private Gift Exchange for the beautiful and talented QuiteBrilliantIndeed!! It was such a treat to get to write about Cloud being his Cloudy self and being loved by his dear friends. We love an autistic protagonist. Best boy.

The first time Cloud notices Tifa watching him with that strange look on her face, he’s sitting at a table in the new Seventh Heaven, surrounded by friends. The whole gang has gathered to celebrate Marlene’s birthday, pushing the smaller restaurant tables together to form one long dining table for their party. The whole gang showed up, Cid even had the good grace to fly in from Rocket Town, which is testament to just how charming Barret’s little lady is.

Cloud is sitting between Reeve and Nanaki, enjoying running his fingers through the comforting texture of Nanaki’s fur, when Yuffie springs up from her chair. 

“CLOUD! You have to see this!” Yuffie shouts, already slapping her chair aside. Vincent frowns at her and delicately lifts his plate of cake out of the way as she barrels around the table.

“Do I?” Cloud responds dryly, but it’s hard for him to mask his good mood. Even with the big crowd in attendance, he’s comfortable; it’s all family. 

“YES, you do. Look at this video, it makes me wanna die!” Yuffie drapes herself over the back of his chair and holds her PHS in front of him so that he can see what she’s so delighted about. His eyebrows shoot up when he sees the genuinely heavenly contents of the screen. 

It’s a baby golden chocobo getting blow dried after a bath. 

Oh my god, he loves chocobos. 

His heart just about melts, and he can’t help the huge smile that splits across his face. Before he knows it, he’s brought his hands up, flapping them excitedly at the precious baby on screen. Yuffie laughs joyfully and just adjusts her grip on the PHS a little so he won’t swat it by accident in his glee. 

“That’s a baby golden chocobo! Oh, it can’t be older than six weeks, look how little it is! It has really nice coloration around its beak, it must have a river chocobo from the Eastern Continent as one of its parents. You only get those nice orange tints around the nostrils in chocobos from equatorial regions in the east. That’s a really good one.” He’s bouncing in his seat a little with the excitement, hands pattering the air. 

Yuffie giggles in delight and sets her PHS down on the table in front of him. 

“Here you go, you can watch it again if you want, I’m gonna grab another slice of cake.” Cloud reaches out to wind the video back and watch it again, when he notices Tifa across the table. 

She’s looking at him with the strangest look in her eye. 

“What?” Cloud asks.

Tifa smiles. “Nothing, just looking.” And then she looks away, picking up her fork again. 

Huh. Cloud returns to his chocobo chick as Denzel helps Marlene pick which present to open first. He doesn’t notice Tifa’s fond gaze return to him.

_________

The second time Cloud catches Tifa giving him that look is several days later, while pouring over plans for a new school in the WRO office. Reeve is a masterful city planner, but he likes to have whichever friends are in town check over his work sometimes before presenting it to committee for construction approval. Cloud isn’t really sure how he’s supposed to help with this- his expertise is flightless birds, motorcycles, and fun facts about their arch nemesis that he read in magazines 15 years ago- but he doesn’t mind the excuse to be around his friends. Today the posse consists of Reeve, Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent, since that’s who happened to be around. Reeve is talking them through the tentative blueprint he’s drawn up, going over how he calculated the number of classrooms to match the findings of this year's census, as well as taking into account the growth rate of the Edge population since the first survivor count post Meteorfall. 

Cloud scoots his chair at the draft table forward to get a better look at the diagrams, leaning against Vincent to get a closer view. Unbeknownst to Cloud, Vincent stiffens, and Tifa’s eyes flick to him as he tenses for a moment. It’s just for a beat though, and then Vincent relaxes slightly, shifting his weight a little to accommodate Cloud. Vincent stays in that position for the rest of the meeting, letting Cloud prop himself against him while they review the school library layout and grade distribution logistics. It’s only when they’re about to wrap up that Cloud glances up at Tifa and notices her giving him that look again. She quickly shifts to a smile when he catches her eye, and his quizzical look goes unanswered. It’s just as well, since he’s distracted again a moment later by Reeve setting down his clipboard and moving to roll up the plans. It couldn’t have been anything too important.

________

The  _ third _ time Cloud sees Tifa giving him The Look, he’s not in the mood to ask her about it, but she doesn’t seem to mind. They’re at a big event celebrating 1 year since Advent Day, and Cloud is more than a little overwhelmed. He knows it’s his duty to play the part of the triumphant hero and make an appearance, and that he should probably be milling around talking to people and promoting good will like Barret and Tifa are, but he feels like his mind is covered in a layer of static. Not in a Jenova way, or a mako-poisoning way, luckily, just in the regular there-are-at-least-200-people-in-this-park-square way, but Shiva help him, he wants to crawl out of his skin. So many strangers have tried to talk to him already and they’re only half an hour into this thing, and people keep brushing against him as he walks and talking over each other and the music is blaring from speakers all around the park and it’s just too much. 

He’s beginning to weigh the pros and cons of jumping into the pond and swimming to safety on the other side when Barret calls out from behind him. Cloud turns, his teeth clenched, to see Barret step out of the crowd and join him in his spot paralyzed next to a shrubbery wall. 

“Hey spikey,” Barret says, leaning in a little so he can speak more softly but still be heard over the clamor of the party. “You holding up okay?”

Cloud bites the insides of his lips, gazing numbly into the throng of people.

“I feel like my chest is full of ants.”

Barret’s brow furrows a little at his choice of analogy, but he rolls with it. 

“Hey, you did a great job keeping it together for the opening speeches, and everybody got to get their nice long look at your pretty face plenty for this evening.” Barret puts himself between Cloud and the mass of partygoers, shielding him a little. “You have all of our permission to sneak into the little park ranger shack and hang there until closing ceremonies, if you want.” 

Cloud jerks his gaze away from the crowd with a tight nod. Barret smiles softly. “Come on, I’ll walk you over.” 

The walk is blessedly short, and then Barret’s unlocking the door to the park maintenance office building with the keys Reeve lent him and Cloud is free from the din. Barret gives him a thumbs up and then heads back out, closing the door behind him. Cloud lets out a long breath that he hadn’t even known he’d been holding, then settles onto the floor between a desk and a filing cabinet. He’s so lucky Barret knows him so well. Thank the gods for his fatherhood-honed ability to sense and avert an incoming breakdown. Cloud wedges himself against the comfortingly solid surface of the wall and pulls out his PHS to read.

It’s when Tifa pokes her head in to retrieve him for the closing remarks several hours later that he sees her give him that look. He can’t ask her about it though, since words just don’t feel doable right now. She accepts his silence easily, recognizing when he’s not up for talking for the rest of the day, and accompanies him back to the rest of their group. Barret’s speaking into the mic, thanking everyone for coming, and Cloud is deeply grateful that they so easily took over on his behalf. He smiles a little, despite the venue.

_________

By the fourth time it happens, Cloud finally has the chance to ask about it.

He’s sitting on the floor of the Highwind’s bridge, curled up with his back pressed to one of the railings, watching the scenery drift by far below. Cid’s been kind enough to pick them up and fly them all out to Wutai to visit Yuffie for a Wutaian Independence celebration. It’s strange, that they all have so much to celebrate these days, but not unwelcome. Cloud’s enjoying the view when he notices out of the corner of his eye that Tifa is staring at him. It takes him a moment to drag his eyes away from the pleasant repeating patterns of chocobo farmland passing beneath them and glance at Tifa’s face, before settling on the control panel next to her.

“What?” he says bluntly, uncertain what exactly that look is supposed to mean, if that’s a sad look or confused or what. She’s so good at reading him; he wishes he were as good at figuring out what she’s thinking. Unfortunately, guessing at others’ thoughts is just one of the many areas where he feels terminally inadequate. “Do you want to talk to me?” he asks, because he’s not going to be able to continue sitting there if he’s worrying about her watching him.

She smiles then, fond and warm, and some of his anxiety recedes. 

“I would love to talk if you’re up for it, but I didn’t intend to interrupt your cloud-gazing,” she says, then smirks a little. “Narcissist.” 

He snorts, but smiles in return, and looks back out the window. If Tifa’s in a joking mood, then he feels comfortable enough returning to his preferred roadtrip passtime. “I’m actually watching the chocobo farms, I’ll have you know.”

“Looking at chocobos in no way improves your argument against narcissism, given that they are identical to you,” Tifa quips back, and though he scoffs, he’s almost a little startled by how happy she seems. 

“What’s got you so chipper?”

She smiles properly then, and props her elbow on the console next to her, chin in her hand.

“I’m just so happy to see you being you.”   


Cloud looks back at her at that. 

“Huh?”

Her gaze is fond. “It’s just really good to see you being yourself. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you act so natural around people. Like, since we were kids, really.”

Cloud softens a little. “Is that what that look you keep giving me means?”

Tifa huffs out a little laugh. “Yeah, it’s like a wistful but relieved look.” She looks out the window a moment, her expression getting a little more melancholy. “It’s just, for so long, it felt like I’d kind of lost you. When I first met you again, in Midgar, and when we were travelling, it was just... so strange. I know now that you were just sick, and trying to be like Zack, but it was  _ so _ weird seeing you try to act with that kind of bravado, like you were so full of yourself and macho. And then even after we got you back, after Meteorfall you were so… I dunno, private, for such a long time. Self-isolating. Like you couldn’t bear anyone even looking at you.”

“I couldn’t,” Cloud says softly. Tifa nods consolingly.

“It’s only really in the past year that I’ve gotten to see you open up. And it’s so amazing. I love seeing you happy, seeing you get excited about your favorite things, watching you interact with all our friends. I mean even when we were kids, you were so careful to never touch anyone or get too close, and seeing you lean on people, just share space with us, makes me so happy.”

Cloud blushes a little. “That’s cuz when I was a kid, Joanna told me at school that I was annoying and weird because I always got in people’s personal space,” he grumbles.

Tifa nods. “That’s exactly what I mean though! Like, you’re comfortable being yourself around us now. And that’s so special to me, that you trust us with yourself. We all really care about you; everyone in the group loves you and does their best to pay attention to what you need and what you’re into and when to back off. I dunno. It’s really cheesy, and maybe kind of weird of me to be so happy about you just, like, being yourself. But I missed you.”

Cloud’s blush is covering most of his face now. 

“It’s not too weird. It’s…. nice to hear it. I’m glad you like me.”

Tifa laughs, and sticks out her leg to poke him with her toe. “I like you very much, as a matter of fact.” 

He laughs too, and swats her away. “I like you too,” he says.

Tifa beams, and slides off her stool to scoot up next to him on the floor, joining him in watching the distant specks of chocobos. “I love you, Cloud. I love you for exactly who you are.”

“Aw, shucks.”

“Hush, let me be sappy.”

“...I love you too.”


End file.
